Field of the Invention
The specification generally relates to collecting recognized items of an image into facings of vertically stacked items and linear groups of horizontally placed items. In particular, the specification relates to a system and method for generating a list of recognized items and converting the list of recognized items to a structured list of linear groups of horizontally placed items.
Description of the Background Art
A planogram is a visual representation of products in a retail environment. For example, a planogram may describe where in the retail environment and in what quantity products should be located. Such planograms are known to be effective tools for increasing sales, managing inventory and otherwise ensuring that the desired quantity and sizes of an item are placed to optimize profits or other parameters. However, presentation and maintenance of adequate levels of stock on shelves, racks and display stands is a labor-intensive effort, thereby making enforcement of planograms difficult. While the location and quantity of products in retail stores can be manually tracked by a user, attempts are being made to automatically recognize the products and automatically or semi-automatically obtain information about the state of products for planogram compliance.
Previous attempts at recognizing planogram compliance have deficiencies. For example, one method to place cameras in retail stores and determine out of stock scenarios. Unfortunately, such methods of planogram compliance can still not be reliable and productive.